Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speakto you tonight to report on the state
of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those
plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by
the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people
of our country. This is truly a national loss.

Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a
terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never
had a tragedy like this.

For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full
impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much.
Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special
spirit that says, "Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a
hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they
did. They served all of us.

We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us.
But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've
grown used to the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're
still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who
were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to
understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of
exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons.
The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger
crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.

I've always had great faith in and respect for our space
program. And what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our
space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front
and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a
minute.

We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more
shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more
civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.

I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who
works for NASA, or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and
professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We
share it."

There's a coincidence today. On this day three hundred and
ninety years ago, the great
explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the
great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea,
died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew:
Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in
which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them,
this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the
surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."1